CB: Khara Jabola is the public affairs director of Strategies 360, co-coordinator of AF3IRM Hawai'i, and mother of Laguna Kekipi Jabola-Ing. (Translation: This corporate lobbyist is literally in bed with Rep Kaniela Ing.) She is a co-chair of the Women's March on Washington-Oahu.

Khara Jabola is the public affairs director of Strategies 360... whose website explains: "We are Strategies 360….We help create the environment for business and public policy success in the West and across the U.S…..It’s a 21st century reality: business strategy and public policy, marketing and government relations, crisis management and brand positioning are all intertwined...."

SA: …In nine months Aloha United Way has far surpassed its goal of using $4.7 million in state funds to help nearly 3,000 people either get into homes or stave off eviction.

The initial target was to reach 2,926 people in 1,270 island families by quickly funneling $4.7 million of Department of Human Services money directly to landlords to either take in the homeless or prevent evictions. Since mid-April, 4,218 people among 1,353 families have been helped across the state…. (avg 3.1 per family)

“For every one homeless person, there are three people with an eviction notice,” King said….

The data also shows that 66 percent of the state money distributed by AUW has gone to people on Oahu, compared with just 9 percent for those living on Maui, 5 percent on Kauai and 20 percent for Hawaii island….

The state and AUW just amended their original contract to extend the program from Feb. 14 to Aug. 14….

Starting Monday, social service outreach workers and volunteers will fan out across the islands to identify homeless people as part of the nationwide Point in Time Count and offer 211 as a resource.

AUW also will distribute thousands of emerald-green, waterproof identification holders that homeless people can wear around their necks to store their ID, which is often lost or stolen on the streets.

“Sixty percent of the homeless lose their ID, and they can’t get housing,” King said.

The holders will also come with a card advertising 211 on one side and locations where homeless people can pick up a free wireless phone that comes with 500 free minutes per month and unlimited texts.

PBN: Construction costs in Honolulu have finally cooled down after more than five years of growth, although costs to build in Hawaii's largest city remain the highest of any city in the United States, according to a new report….

From July through October, Honolulu reported the only negative percentage change out of the 12 cities the report tracks for comparative costs across the country…

Honolulu’s comparative costs saw a negative 0.64 percent from July through October…. The national average increase in construction costs was about 1 percent, the report said….

KHON: It’s been under renovation for more than a decade, yet the Princess Kamamalu building at the corner of King and Richards streets is still not finished. The state-owned building has been vacant since 2003.

Some renovation work was started but was stopped due to lack of funding and then eventually picked up again.

Meanwhile, several state agencies that were supposed to be in the Kamamalu building have been renting out other office space in downtown Honolulu this entire time.

So when will work be finished?

We last checked on the progress of the renovation work a year ago and we were told the building would be ready by fall 2016, but obviously that targeted time has come and gone.

We checked on the building Friday and there were several workers on site.

We reached out to the state Department of Accounting and General Services to find out when the work is scheduled to be finished. The department said in a statement that the work should be done by the end of February of this year.

We’re told the Departments of Health and Human Services are set to move in any time between March to June….

Lawyer: I’ll Pretend to be Incompetent if it Helps Convicted Murderer Get Off Easy

KHON: The Hawaii (OJ Simpson) Innocence Project filed a motion for the court to take another look at the case citing, among other things, that Schweitzer received ineffective counsel.

One of the two attorneys who defended Schweitzer (pretends to) agree….

Attorney Peter Esser is in an unusual spot, because admitting that Schweitzer did not receive good representation in the trial would help the Hawaii Innocence Project’s claim, and could eventually set Schweitzer free….

Esser says the reason Schweitzer was treated unfairly was there was too much pretrial publicity, so it was impossible for his client to get a fair trial. He says the trial should have at least been moved to another county, like Oahu or Maui. (Totally different than incompetent legal representation.)

Esser says he did the best he could for Schweitzer at the time and he doesn’t object to being called ineffective if it will help his former client get out of prison.

“I don’t want to deny any of their claims for a couple of reasons,” he said. “I want this guy to succeed, so I don’t want to undermine any of these claims. I want this guy to get a new trial. He deserves one.”

(Of course, that statement is itself a denial of your own incompetence. Duh.)

We also spoke one of the deputy prosecutors who handled the case, Charlene Iboshi. She says that based on the evidence against Schweitzer, it was a rightful conviction.

Zuckerberg Quiet Title Gives Ing Another Opportunity to Pander and Posture

PBN: A new law dealing with land ownership, which was passed during last year's legislative session and went into effect on Jan. 1 was likely the reason why Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg filed the “quiet title” actions on his 700 acres of Kauai oceanfront land just before the start of 2017, a Honolulu real estate attorney told Pacific Business News this week….

State Rep. Kaniela Ing, D-South Maui, said he plans to introduce this legislation through the House Committee on Ocean, Marine Resources and Hawaiian Affairs to address issues with “quiet title” and “kuleana lands” law….

PBN: …Volvo of Honolulu has been cleared to resume selling new cars, nearly a month after Hawaii state regulators ordered the dealership to halt selling new vehicles because of a paperwork issue, a company executive confirmed to Pacific Business News Friday.

“It’s been a struggle,” John Martinho, vice president and chief operating officer for Volvo of Honolulu, told PBN. “We lost, on average, $13,000 a day on expenses without having any sales revenue coming in. We sold zero cars [during that time]. It hurt our used car operation as well.” …

PBN first reported about the Volvo issue with state regulators. On Dec. 29, Hawaii officials ordered Volvo Car USA to halt sales of new vehicles in the state after the New Jersey-based division of the Swedish automaker failed to provide the proper documentation to state regulators….

“Why it took so long, we don’t know. We had two employees quit on us in the sales department. They didn’t have any income coming in. Right now, we are talking to our attorneys to see what the best route is.”

High Tech Tax Credit Schemers Try Agriculture as Excuse for New Round of Crony Capitalism

PBN: “We’re at an interesting time in agriculture here in Hawaii, especially over the last couple months,” said Rob Barreca, whose company, Waialua-based Farm Link Hawaii was recently awarded a $498,812 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop an open-source production planning marketplace for local growers and their buyers….

In October, the state Agribusiness Development Corp. received $31.5 million to buy 900 acres of former Dole Food Co. pineapple lands in Central Oahu to be used as part of the Whitmore farming project in the area….

“There’s a quote from Leonardo Da Vinci that I love to reference (because it makes me seem more worthy of your tax credits),” said Vincent Kimura, who heads Honolulu-based Smart Yields, a tech company that allows farmers to monitor soil conditions through the use of ground sensors….

Smart Yields came out of Blue Startups’ program after being included in the accelerator company’s sixth cohort in 2015. The ag-tech company recently got another boost after being named to University of Hawaii accelerator XLR8UH’s fifth cohort in November….

Ted Ralston, the University of Hawaii’s newly appointed director of unmanned aircraft systems, said drones have the potential to increase the amount of data a farmer can collect….

CB: State senators introduce one measure, Senate Bill 260, to ban knowingly selling personal care products that contain oxybenzone or octinoxate, another chemical that protects people from the sun but that’s toxic to coral organisms when it washes off of swimmers in the ocean or ends up going down the drain when taking a shower.

The other measure, Senate Bill 210, bans wearing sunscreen or cosmetics that contain oxybenzone while on a beach.

(Most likely explanation: A manufacturer with a competing sunscreen chemical is behind efforts to ban oxybenzone and octinoxate.)